Bose Debuts QuietComfort Ultra Headphones and Ultra Earbuds (Hands-On)

Speaker 1: Hey there. So Bose has introduced three new headphones, two over ear models, and one set of in-ear earbuds. I just got back from the launch event and I have some early impressions. For starters, you should know that these are kind of expensive headphones. The new Quiet Comfort Ultra headphones cost $429. The Quiet Comfort Ultra Earbuds are 2 99, and the new Quiet Comfort headphones [00:00:30] are $349. I'm going to give you a quick rundown of all the new models. Just be aware that this is not a full review. I only got to listen to the Quiet Comfort Ultra Headphones for a very short period of time, but I will have full reviews in the coming weeks. So I'm going to start with a new flagship over ear model, the Quiet Comfort Ultra Headphones. It's the most different of all three that have been announced. It truly has a new design. Speaker 1: It's a successor [00:01:00] to Bose's Noise canceling headphones, 700 that came out in 2019. It has the same drivers, but it has a whole new chassis. It's got some aluminum in it. It's the first set of Bose headphones that has an aluminum yolk, and also arms that go into the headband that are also aluminum. So it does have a sturdier feel than past Bose headphones, but it does weigh around the same as those headphones, 700 right around 350 grams. And [00:01:30] it really was comfortable to wear, as you'd expect from a set of Bose headphones. But the feature that Bose is really highlighting with these headphones is something that calls immersive audio. It's a spatial audio mode. It's Bose's version of spatial audio, and these do have head tracking, so you can use this both in still mode with a fixed sound around you, as well as a motion mode that has the head tracking engaged, and so the sound stays fixed right in front of you. Speaker 1: And as you move your head, the sound moves with [00:02:00] you. I don't know if it's better than Apples spatial audio or Dolby Spatial Audio for that matter, but it does widen the sound stage and it does get the sound out of your head. Bose wasn't really promoting it for use with video so much, but it can be used with video. There are Bose said 10 microphones on these headphones, four external on each ear cup, as well as one internal microphone on each ear cup. Those are both used for voice calling and noise canceling. [00:02:30] The voice calling is apparently on the same level as the headphone 700. I was a fan of the headphone 700. I really did like their sound. And these also feature clean, well-balanced sound with good detail, punchy bass. I do think it'll get slightly better sound from these, but it's largely due to the better Digital processing. Speaker 1: It isn't so much due to the hardware because again, they have the same drivers as the seven hundreds, but from what I heard from [00:03:00] about seven or eight songs I listened to from an Apple playlist, they really have a nice clean sound, at least from my early listening sessions. I do think these compare favorably to headphones in this price class. These are obviously expensive at $429. You have the AirPods Max a little bit more, but I do think these measure up pretty well against the AirPods Max. Alright, I'm going to move on to the Quiet Comfort Ultra Earbuds. These look almost identical [00:03:30] to the Quiet Comfort Earbuds two that were released just last year, and it was a bit of a surprise that Bose has now released an update already. It usually takes a lot longer to release updates to its headphone line. They do have a metallic finish on their front that isn't there with the QC earbuds too, but basically they're the same. Speaker 1: There's one other small difference. The stabilizer fins, the tips, they have a little notch in them so that they don't slide around, so the earbuds fit [00:04:00] a little bit more securely in your ears. Really, the biggest difference these QC Ultra earbuds have from the QC earbuds too is that these have that immersive audio that I mentioned with the Ultra headphones, so they have that same feature, that same spatial audio feature with head tracking. The Earbuds two don't have that. That's really the QC Ultra Earbuds in a nutshell. That costs the same $299 as the [00:04:30] QC earbuds two, and they'll ship in early October. And Bose finally did release a third headphone. It's just called the Bose Quiet Comfort Headphones. There's no number. It's replacing the Bose Quiet Comfort 45 headphones, and there really doesn't seem to be a whole lot of difference between the two. However, the new Bose Quiet Comfort headphones do cost $50 more. They're 3 49. [00:05:00] They do have some software upgrades. Most notably, you can adjust the noise canceling to whatever level you want. That was a feature on the headphone 700. I'm David Carne for cnet. Thanks for watching.